Sweden – the mother nation of a transparent administration with a freedom of information law since 1766 – is currently struggling with itself about exactly freedom of information.

Should citizens enjoy the same openness as in the old paperages, when the administration moves on to use electronic administration?

A recent draft on access to electronically held public information by a committee under the Swedish Ministry of Justice has caused protests by the Swedish Union of Journalists, who also filed a minority comment in the ministerial committe. Read a resumée of the recent developments in Sweden on Wobbing.eu.

It is interesting to see, how countries and the European institutions struggle with the notion of transparency in public administration when it comes to new technologies. Technologies, that make it easier to give access to information because of electronic filing systems and so forth.

Yet again and again the move to more efficient administrative systems appears to be used to push the public back into the dark paper ages and keept public scrutiny away from our public authorities. A dangerous move, if we want a well-functioning administration and public trust in our democracies.

The European Ombudsmand following the farmsubsidy case produced an overview over the situation on electronic access  in 2008, thus emphasising the importance of the subject.

The situation is now developping at a fast speed, and citizens and journalists have to watch out not to find themselves stuck between piles of paper with old information.